WASHINGTON — Iran’s liaisons to the world’s largest police organization are expected next week to do everything they can to reverse a decision that recommends international law enforcement agencies arrest and detain five of the regime’s former high officials.

The meeting scheduled for March 12 at Lyons, France, could call into question the Islamic Republic’s participation in Interpol, an international agency including 186 states that tries to coordinate the enforcement of transnational crimes.

Yesterday, The New York Sun obtained a copy of Interpol’s legal ruling on the request from an Argentine court to issue what are known as “red notices” for the capture of five former Iranian regime officials. The Iranians are accused of masterminding the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a terrorist attack in which 86 people were killed. Red notices are the equivalent of arrest warrants and requested by the courts of member states for wanted fugitives.

According to a copy of the February 28 ruling from Interpol’s office of legal affairs, the wanted Iranians include the former minister of Intelligence and Security, Ali Fallahijan; the former commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Ahmad Vahidi; the former commander of the revolutionary guard, Mohsen Rezai; Iran’s cultural attaché for its embassy in Buenos Aires, Mohsen Rabbani; and that embassy’s third secretary, Ahmad Reza Asghari. Also wanted by Interpol is master Hezbollah terrorist, Imadh Mugniyah.

The decision by Interpol is significant because if the body’s general assembly endorses the position of its lawyers, it would mark an unusual acknowledgement by an international organization that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. The Argentine court requested that Interpol place a red notice out for the former president of Iran, Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani, though the agency’s lawyers recommended against it, saying that the decision to include the warrant for him would be too political.

The decision from Interpol can also be seen as part of the State Department’s strategy of squeezing the Iranians through international institutions and through law enforcement and diplomatic pressure.

The red notices requested for the five former Iranian officials would effectively make their travel to Europe impossible, or at least very difficult. This is significant in light of the fact that as recently as 2003, Mr. Rezai met with a former national security council official, Flynt Leverett, and reportedly conveyed the enthusiasm of Iran’s supreme leader for negotiations to normalize relations with America.

The recommendation from Interpol’s Office of Legal Affairs represents a victory for the Argentines, whose initial request for the warrants dates back to on November 2, 2003. Since that time, the Islamic Republic has argued that the warrants were inappropriate because of the rank and position of the former officials and what the Iranians claim is their innocence in the crime against the AMIA Cultural Center.

“The decision by Interpol to issue capture notices for those implicated in the ’94 bombing upholds the integrity of the Argentine judicial inquiry which found sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against these Iranian officials and their Hezbollah proxies,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said yesterday in a statement praising the decision.

The legal ruling from Interpol stresses that the recommendation should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the former officials’ guilt or innocence.

“It is my hope that Interpol will now act expeditiously to implement its decision so that these fugitives will be compelled to answer for their alleged role in this terrorist attack,” Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said.

The executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, said yesterday, “This is another important step forward in bringing to justice the Iranian officials responsible for ordering and executing the horrendous attack. Despite the fact that Rafsanjani was not named, he still has to be held to account.”

Mr. Rafsanjani has revived his reputation in the last two years since the he accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of stealing the 2005 presidential election from him in a final run-off round. Later that summer he called publicly for the release of dissident author, Akbar Ganji, who was initially arrested for accusing Mr. Rafsanjani of ordering a series of murders of Iranian intellectuals. Today, Mr. Rafsanjani is seen as a more “moderate” choice to replace the ailing supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, by some in America and Israel who favor negotiations with the Iranian government.